annmarie aylward

In a move that many will find surprising, Washington State’s Department of Corrections has stopped testing parolees for cannabis, effectively allowing the roughly 14,000 individuals on parole in the state to consume cannabis without consequence. The move is made possible by the recent legalization of cannabis in the state, passed by voters in 2012 through a citizen’s initiative.

“We’re putting some changes into effect so that we won’t routinely test offenders in the community for THC,” Annmarie Aylward, assistant secretary for the Department of Corrections, told King 5 last month, right before the implementation of the new change. “We don’t want them held to that level when, as a citizen, you wouldn’t be held to that level either”.